Reflection on the life of Edward Schillebeeckx
The Guardian (UK) offers a fascinating obituary on theologian Edward Schillebeeckx:
Edward Schillebeeckx obituary
His influential but low-key theological dissent inflamed the Vatican
From the Guardian (UK) online
For the past three decades, the leadership of the Catholic church has displayed a particular intolerance of theological dissent. Some of the otherwise loyal priest-teachers who have been targeted by the Vatican have reacted to their very public rebukes by courting the press and liberal Catholic opinion. Hans Küng and Leonardo Boff, for instance, have become prominent examples. By contrast, the Flemish Dominican Father Edward Schillebeeckx, who has died aged 95, responded to being hauled over the coals by the Vatican in 1984 with characteristic understatement. Though second to none as a theologian in 20th-centuryCatholicism, he lived out his remaining years away from the limelight out of his enduring loyalty to the church – despite the rough justice handed out to him.At issue was Schillebeeckx's questioning, in dense but academically influential writings throughout the 1970s, of a too-literal reading of the New Testament. To the Vatican's evident irritation, he queried the relevance to the modern age of church teaching on the virgin birth and resurrection. So did many others, but Schillebeeckx (pronounced Schill-e-bex) had been one of the leading theological lights at the great reforming Second Vatican Council (1962-65). So his efforts in Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (1974) and Christ: The Christian Experience in the Modern World (1977) to build on the council's updating of Catholic thought by relating the gospel message to contemporary experience could not simply be overlooked. "I do not begrudge any believer the right to describe and live out his belief in accordance to old models of experience, culture and ideas," he once said, "but this attitude isolates the church's faith from any future and divests it of any real missionary power."
I loved his writings - was very influenced by Church with a Human Face -- which I believe was more threatening to the hierarchical church than any other of his writings. Essentially he argues that God speaks through the Body and things will change because of pressure from the people in the church.
Posted by Ann Fontaine![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 25, 2010 12:17 PM
Yes it seems sad that one of the greatest theologians of the last century appears to have gone under the radar because his theology did not sit with the most recent pontificates I think his relevance will last long beyond his life for one simple reason a little like Oscar Romero his sainthood is by acclamation among the Catholic laity for whom he attempted to liberate from the overly clerical mindset his constant vision was set on the Lord, and I pray that the Lord will bless him and let his face shine upon him and give him peace, a truly great theological saint of the 20th century
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February 25, 2010 2:25 PM